There was something (there were many things, but this was different) that happened at the 48:02-minute point in Trump’s January 11th press conference that troubled me. It was very small, very quick and very disturbing. With his eyes closed in self-benediction, Trump flicked his hand in a contemptuous dismissal of reporter Jim Acosta of CNN (later taking a question from a different CNN reporter).
QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news organization...
TRUMP: Not you.
[hand flick]
QUESTION: Can you give us a chance?
TRUMP: Your organization is terrible.
QUESTION: You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir? Sir, can you...
TRUMP: Quiet.
QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, can you say...
TRUMP: He’s asking a question, don’t be rude. Don’t be rude.
QUESTION: Can you give us a question since you’re attacking us? Can you give us a question?
TRUMP: Don’t be rude. No, I’m not going to give you a question. I’m not going to give you a question.
QUESTION: Can you state...
TRUMP: You are fake news. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Sir, can you state categorically that nobody — no, Mr. President-elect, that’s not appropriate.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
That simple hand flick happened too early in the game for the President-Elect. It telegraphed condescension, derision, and a willingness to publicly humiliate. It reeked of personal more than professional payback as if he wanted to say, “You’re fired” but realized he doesn’t have the jurisdiction. It was a bully move.
For the next few days, freedom of the press is still protected by the First Amendment in the US. If it was up to Kellyanne Conway, who's inclined to make threatening statements such as 'Trump's critics should be very careful about what they say', the First Amendment might not always stay that way.
Should Trump, the 70-year-old millennial, attempt to outlaw criticism, there is historical precedent for it being something fast and drastic, but my guess is that it will most likely be a slow, progressive choke. All the signs are there. Right after the election, Trump refused to allow journalists to travel with him for his first meeting with Obama. Before his press conference last week, Trump reportedly asked his legal team if it is permissible to expel or restrict CNN and BuzzFeed News from the White House press corps. Evidently, that didn’t work, but at the press conference, he wouldn’t take their questions. On January 15, the incoming White House press secretary repeated suggestions that Trump will deny reporters the traditional levels of White House access.
In 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor on January 30th. It took him five days to start restricting the press and banning political meetings and marches. On February 28th, the Reichstag was set ablaze – just the crisis he needed to enact his first decree: The Reichstag Fire Decree, otherwise known as Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and the State. That decree permitted restrictions on freedom of the press.
Preposterous in this day and age? Most definitively not. Up here in Canada the Good, it already happened. Stephen Harper was elected Prime Minister in 2006, promising openness and accountability, and then set land speed records in placing a stranglehold on the “Ottawa media elite.” MPs stopped returning phone calls from the media, cabinet ministers regularly refused to comment, security guards on Parliament Hill were ordered to keep reporters from hanging around near the cabinet room where they traditionally would wait for cabinet meetings to finish.
In Turkey, insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail, but the law has rarely been invoked. Since Erdoğan became president in 2014, 1,800 cases have been opened. In December, Ece Heper, a dual Canadian-Turkish citizen was arrested in the city of kars in northeastern Turkey and charged with allegedly insulting the president in comments posted on Facebook. In one post, Heper accused Erdoğan of jailing journalists who suggested there is evidence Turkey is supporting Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Erdoğan has stated he doesn't care if people call him a dictator. That is something Trump will never do, in so many words, but he appears to have no problem behaving like one.
